


Human Friends

by Elfpen



Series: Born Yesterday [2]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-24
Updated: 2015-05-24
Packaged: 2018-04-01 01:20:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4000552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elfpen/pseuds/Elfpen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pepper calls Vision by the wrong name, and Vision confides in her about human friendship. Spoilers for AoU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Human Friends

She tried not to do it, she really did. Vision had explained it to her a million times by now, and even Tony (who slipped up sometimes, too) teased her about it. But after so long working with that voice, it was so, so hard not to.

"Jarvis, could you help me carry this to my office?"

"Jarvis, have you seen Tony?"

"Thank you, Jarvis,"

"Jarvis, if you see Miss Maximoff, please let her know that I've set an appointment for her with the visa office for this Tuesday."

"Good morning, Jarvis."

"Of course, Jarvis,"

"Jarvis?"

Inevitably, every one of these slipups would be met with a similar rebuke.

"I'm not Jarvis, you know," Vision would say very calmly. Pepper felt terrible, she really did. She'd apologize and make excuses about how easy it was to forget because of the voice, and then apologize again and shuffle away.

But nowadays, even when it happened, it was Tony and the others who corrected her most of the time. Vision rarely mentioned it anymore, even if she said it multiple times to his face, neither of them would mention it until someone else walked in and heard her. She wondered if he'd given up on trying to make her understand. She wanted to smack her forehead sometimes out of sheer embarrassment. She didn't have the courage to ask him if it was bothering him or try to apologize more, because she felt that by now her apologies meant nothing.

She didn't expect to see him up so late. It was about one in the morning, and she was cleaning up after one of Thor's overenthusiastic drinking competitions in the kitchen. Pepper worked long nights more often than she'd like to admit, and found cleaning therapeutic. She never told Tony this, because she hated cleaning up after him, but in the quiet, dark kitchen, something about the routine, mindless and calm as it was, was soothing.

"Would you like my assistance?" The voice startled her, and Pepper dropped a beer bottle in her shock. Vision caught it deftly, and set it on the counter. "My apologies, I thought you'd heard me."

"Oh, no," Pepper put a hand lightly to her chest to quell the rush of adrenaline. "No, it's fine, I just didn't see you there, Jarvis, I-" she sighed and closed her eyes. "Vision. I'm sorry, I- I didn't mean to say that." She smiled apologetically at him. "What are you doing up so late?"

Vision shrugged. "I'm often up when others are not, and I take the time to enjoy the quiet. Also," He gestured toward the massive wall of windows, alight with nighttime New York and more distant moonlight. "I enjoy the view at night."

Pepper nodded, smiling. "I see. Do you… um… do you need sleep, Vision?" It was an awkward question. The Vision shrugged again, not awkward like Pepper.

"I'm not entirely sure, to be honest. I've never been geniunely tired, I suspect, but I enjoy periods of prolonged meditation and rest every day. I suppose it is like sleep. I don't need as much as the others do, but I try to take my rest at night. It… it makes me feel more human," He confided with a small smile. "And what of you? You really oughn't to deprive yourself of rest, Miss Potts."

She smiled at him. "Oh, you know, cleaning up after Tony's messes takes time. Stark Industries is still reeling after the Ultron fiasco, and he's bought a new lot upstate, wants to build a new facility there for the Avengers team."

"Yes he mentioned that a few days ago. But surely it can't keep you up this late every night?"

"I'm afraid so - for now," Pepper said, moving glasses from the sink and counter into the dishwasher.

"Well then let me do this," Vision took a glass from her hand, "And you go sleep. You need it."

"Really, Jarvis, it's fine, I actually enjoy it, it's very cathartic… and I just called you Jarvis again, didn't I?" She didn't even try apologizing, and sighed instead. She was embarrassed and missed Vision's small smile.

"Well," He said quietly, moving around and collecting dishes from around the room, "Then at least let me help you."

They worked in silence for some time, loading the dishwasher and washing down countertops, putting away foodstuffs and setting the liquor cabinet in order. It was when Pepper started handing Vision dishes to dry that he finally said,

"I don't mind, you know."

"What?" she asked. Sleep deprivation, though she was used to masking it gracefully, was taking its toll.

"I don't mind when you call me Jarvis," Vision explained. Pepper frowned.

"Really?"

"Truly. I actually find it… comforting."

"Really?" Pepper handed him a plate, and watched him dry it carefully as he replied:

"You speak of Jarvis as a real person. He was a program, and yet you ascribe to him the respect and fondness of a close friend, a person."

"He was. I mean, yes, he is - was a program, but he was… Jarvis. Of course he was a friend."

"Exactly," Vision set the dried plate on the neat stack beside him and looked back to Pepper, eyes sincere. "You see me as a person just as you saw Jarvis. It is comforting." This explanation baffled her.

"But… the others do too. Tony was better friends with Jarvis than I was, by far," Pepper frowned at him, crossing her arms. "You correct him on your name all the time."

"Indeed. But Tony does not see Jarvis in me anymore. He slips and calls me that sometimes, yes, but he does not see the same thing." Vision took the stacks of dishes they'd cleaned and began putting them away. "My birth did not destroy Jarvis. He is still in my mind. I am still him, in a way. But my mind is a living thing, not a computer. I am no longer constrained by the code that Mr. Stark designed, and that terrifies him. My freedom to be me has destroyed the consistency of what was once his closest companion, and he mourns it. He comforts himself by calling me a thing, a synthetic creature of absurdly orchestrated happenstance." Vision closed the dish cupboards and turned back to Pepper. "The others follow his lead, more often than not." He glanced away, subconsciously drawn to look in the general direction of Wanda's bedroom. She was the exception. He looked back at Pepper. "I am not human, to them, because Tony does not want me to be human."

"But… Tony is thrilled to have you on the team, to have you here - he talks about you all the time to me."

"As a created thing, a tool." Vision said. "And he is accurate in saying so, but he does not - perhaps cannot treat me as a person. To admit that I am more than a machine would be, for him, to kill Jarvis once and for all. So he perpetuates the idea that I am a machine, a piece of very sophisticated hardware carting around his brainchild. But I am not. That is why I correct him when he calls me Jarvis, because we both need him to move past that in order to know me as I am. But you," Vision smiled at Pepper, "you do it out of habit and fondness. You were close with Jarvis as a friend is with a friend, not as a creator with his creation."

"He was the only one who could help me keep track of Tony's messes," she said ruefully. "Go through daily battles like that with anyone, it's impossible to not become friends."

"Oh, I remember," Vision chuckled. "Taking out the trash, indeed."

That made Pepper laugh, and Vision smiled because of it. After a few more minutes of quiet work together, Pepper opened the freezer and pulled out a pint of ice cream. She retrieved two spoons and sat up by the counter on a barstool.

"So you can sort of sleep, can you sort of eat ice cream?"

Vision smiled. "I don't need sustenance as such, but… yes. After all, I'm only human."

They spoke for a long time, about the avengers and Tony, about Vision and Jarvis and what it meant to be a person. Eventually, Vision put away their ice cream and bid a very drowsy Pepper to get some sleep. "Goodnight, Miss Potts," He said as she shuffled off to her room.

"Goodnight, Jarvis," She said without thinking. He smiled, knowing that he would never correct her on his name, and she would never get it right. Vision was not Jarvis, but for the friendship of Pepper Potts, he would answer to the name for as long as he lived.


End file.
